France

When will business events pick up again? What are the most dynamic sectors in these circumstances? Is France still as attractive a destination as ever? A study carried out by Atout France and EY among agencies, congress organising associations and major companies in Germany, the UK and Belgium,...

As the pandemic recedes, so do the number of hotel closures. The resurgence of the pandemic, and government measures to deal with it, are leading many hoteliers to put their businesses on hold once again. This second wave of closures is admittedly less severe than in the spring, when a very large proportion of the French hotel industry closed down,...

We'll have to wait until 2025 to discover this new luxury hotel being planned on the Côte d'Azur. But already, its developer, the Fondimmo property group, has announced its intention to make it nothing less than a national and international benchmark. Its project has just won the competition launched by the SNCF to build a new luxury...

Text Serge Barret / Photos Alain Parinet First there's the Mediterranean. Blue, as it should be; with, most of the time, a sky to match, whether very early or very late in the season. As a result, in Corsica there are long white sandy beaches as well as secluded coves,...

Will the reconfinement have a significant impact on the hotel industry, or will it be limited in the end, given that passenger numbers are already at their lowest? Olivier Petit - The reconfinement, and above all the restrictions on inter-regional and international travel, particularly outside the Schengen area, will structurally limit the flow of travellers, and therefore the need for accommodation. This will not...

On Wednesday evening, the French President made official the reconfinement measure, which has been in force in France since the evening of 29 October and will remain in force until at least 1 December. A progress review will take place in a fortnight' time to reassess the situation. Since Friday, the attestation has been without return to limit restricted travel to...

The curfew imposed in nine French cities is shedding new light on the hotel concept of staycation. This is particularly the case in Paris, where luxury establishments, particularly affected by the absence of international travellers, are turning to local customers to invite them to enjoy their evenings out...

Like many hoteliers, are you seeing a timid recovery in business for Balladins hotels? Fabrice Beyer - Indeed. After a summer in which, with the exception of the Paris region, occupancy figures were good, September was a mixed bag. The fine weather sustained demand from leisure customers, but the...

As expected, on Wednesday evening Emmanuel Macron announced a curfew from 9pm to 6am in nine major cities to curb the circulation of the virus and deal with the health situation. The Ile-de-France, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Aix-Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse and Rouen are affected by these new measures and the ban on going out at night...

Report and photos by Florian Guillemin. Something is afoot in the Hauts-de-France region. Lille has been named World Design Capital 2020, following in the footsteps of destinations such as Seoul and Mexico City, and can no longer hide from its status. Even if, as Covid is obliged to do, the city had to wait until early September to launch the festivities. More than a city,...

French business travellers accustomed to relying on Citymapper for their urban journeys in Paris, Seoul or Montreal will now be able to do the same for their everyday journeys. The mobile application has just added six destinations to its French catalogue, which until now has been limited to Paris and Lyon - Monaco has also been included for just over a year now....

Is Le Puy du Fou a new player in major professional events? Certainly not, since the venue already hosts almost 200 events a year. "We intend to double this figure in the future," says Thomas Guitet, director of Puy du Fou Congrès. Because, with the opening of a real convention centre, the theme park launched in 1978 by...

It's a timid arrival for Vueling on French domestic routes, but it's a symbolic one. IAG's low-cost - or hybrid, depending on your sensibilities - subsidiary has just announced the launch of three domestic routes from Orly. Brest, Montpellier and Marseille will each have two flights a week, on Fridays and Sundays....

At the end of last week, Emirates confirmed its return to the French regions for its winter timetable, which begins on 25 October. From December 2, it will be offering four weekly frequencies by Boeing 777-300ER to Lyon instead of the daily flight it operated last year. To Nice, Emirates will be relaunching its...

Transavia, Air France's low-cost subsidiary, will be starting its first domestic routes from Orly and Nantes this autumn. On 2 November, Air France's low-cost subsidiary Transavia will take over the Paris Orly-Biarritz route, offering up to three daily frequencies. It will also be taking over four routes from Nantes-Atlantique, offering thirty weekly frequencies....

Toulouse is home to a new convention centre, MEETT, with 95,000 m² of modular space suitable for events of all sizes. Since September 3, the MEETT exhibition and convention centre has welcomed its first visitors and exhibitors for the Motorhome Show and the Vivre Nature Show, in Toulouse.

The total transport package amounts to just over 11 billion euros and will help to speed up France's ecological transition. Prime Minister Jean Castex has specified that this package will help to renovate the railways, build new railway bridges, bring back night trains and...

The United Kingdom's sudden decision to re-introduce compulsory quarantine for travellers to several European Union countries within a matter of hours has further dampened hopes of a return to normal traffic flows. The decision was justified by the upsurge in cases of coronavirus in certain parts of these countries. The UK's Department for...

It was an election with the flavour of a plebiscite. With a turnout of 82.63% and 90.37% in favour, the SNPL, the majority union of Air France pilots, finally validated on 12 August the plan to reorganise the domestic network proposed by the management of the Air France-KLM group, after months of negotiations....

Ecological awareness and the Covid-19 crisis have had at least one positive effect on Europe's railways: the return of night trains. A fine revenge for a mode of transport that seemed doomed 20 years ago. The SNCF in France, the FS in Italy...